Home Prices Grow Slowest In Eastern States, Remain Hot in Pacific Northwest

While Oregon, Washington, and Colorado continue to thrive, many midwestern and eastern states are experiencing slower growth in the housing market.

MarketWatch reports that, along with Connecticut’s 1.2 percent decline, several states including New Jersey, Delaware, Vermont, Maryland, and Pennsylvania had year-over-year housing price gains of less than 2 percent. By comparison, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado had increases of 9 percent or better.

One of the key explainers for the variance is the local jobs market. Connecticut, for instance, in July had the 39th worst unemployment rate at 5.7%, and Alaska had the worst unemployment rate at 6.7%.

That said, Oregon and Washington also had worse-than-average unemployment rates. So a lack of inventories of homes available for sale also are playing a key role. According to Realtor.com, listings in the Seattle metropolitan area had the second-shortest time on the market in July, and the Portland area had the sixth-quickest time on the market.

Read more